Mortal Kombat Unchained on PSP (2006)

Brief synopsis of Mortal Kombat Unchained

Amidst all the kerfuffle surrounding the end of Mortal Kombat on current-gen consoles with Armageddon, another addition to the franchise seems to have slipped under the radar: Unchained is the new title from Midway, and brings the world of Mortal Kombat to the PSP for the first.

Unchained takes the intense, brutal (and once upon a time, controversial) gameplay of earlier outings of the franchise and adapts it to the small(er) screen. Pains have been taken by Midway to not miss a beat of what made its big brother tick, while making sure the title plays well in a smaller format and doesn't just dump the content of MKDeception into a portable package.

In addition to the two new playable characters (Goro and Shao Kahn) seen in Deception, four new fighters have been added in the form of Kitana, Frost, Blaze and Jax. Players will also be able to access all 30 characters from before the first punch is thrown, including characters such as Zombie Lui Kang which were so difficult to unlock in previous instalments, they were virtually unplayable.

Also new for the PSP is Endurance mode. Players will fight each opponent in vicious succession without the power-ups normally gained between matches, in an experience not unlike a night on the town in WF1 (insert postcode of your choice).

As well as the new features, expect to see the return of Puzzle Kombat and Chess Kombat joining the two-player ad-hoc battle mode in wireless glory. Accompanying the aforementioned from the PS2 is Konquest, in which players undertake a variety of training missions and battles in a manner closer to what you'd expect from a traditional action/adventure title than a beat-em-up.